Kris Boyd was substituted as Kilmarnock were thumped 4-0 by Hearts on Tuesday

The former Scotland and Rangers forward admits he only knows the former Valencia assistant manager from the brief time they spent together on a coaching course – but saw enough to suggest Cathro would be “out of his depth” at Tynecastle. Boyd claimed Cathro lacked the personal skills to relate to players and relied too much on technology.

But now Cathro has had his say.

He admits he may have failed to strike up a connection with the other participants on the Pro-Licence course – but only because he was helping his former side find a way to shackle the likes of Barcelona star Lionel Messi or Real Madrid’s Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo.

In an interview with BT Sport pundit Chris Sutton, Cathro – who got the last laugh when his side thumped Boyd’s Kilmarnock 4-0 on Tuesday – said: “It’s mis-informed, of course. The period of time when I was doing that course at the same time as Kris, I was at Valencia.

“So I found it quite difficult to get back and be there for the full duration of it all.

“I’m not sure the guys would love me saying this but I probably spent a little bit of time on the course doing [Valencia] work as well.

“I was on the course but I had a job to do as well. We had games to play.

“You have breaks on these courses and maybe I was sitting with a laptop preparing the video or the training session for us ahead of our next game, which may have been against Atletico, Real or Barcelona.”